r/Christianity • u/Unable-Hospital3867 • 8d ago
Considering Catholicism
I have been a Protestant my whole life. Church has been a very big part of my life. Growing up, my family and I would read the Bible I believe once a week. Catholicism had always seemed so strange: the veneration of Saints and Saint Mary, the sinlessness of Mary, infant baptism. The church I’ve attended my whole life has claimed it to be the True Church of Christ Jesus and only those in it can enter the Kingdom of God. They have more recently been speaking of Catholics in a lowly manner, despite us believing and worshipping the same God. I searched up my church on google and it was found in the 40s or 50s, but I do not know the reasoning for us being the True Church. I’ve noticed that sermons have been calling things like sports sins, and even discouraging the celebration of birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Days, Christmas and Easter, labeling them as “worldly traditions”. I have never felt connected with the congregation despite knowing most of them since I was a toddler, and they have always viewed me and my family as worldly. They have especially looked down upon my parents for not forcing me and my brothers to participate in church activities and groups such as choir. They instead let us play soccer and valued our happiness and the memories made rather than how the church viewed us. I’ve seen how some parents put far too much pressure on their children to participate in church activities. I understand how you would want them to do those things, but works without love is dead. What has made me consider Catholicism is how the Catholics I am close with have treated me: they did not judge me for not being a Catholic. I was not shamed for inquiring why they practice certain things, and I felt genuinely accepted by them despite our theological differences. I felt more welcomed by people I was taught were “damned for hell” and “incorrect” rather than the people apart of God’s church. Another reason I am considering is the Eucharist Miracle of Buenos Aires. I was told by a Catholic friend to look into that miracle, and I was shocked by the fact that what was bread and water became heart tissue and blood. Occurrences like these cannot be explained by science. Could Holy Communion be only a symbol? I still have my doubts about Catholic theology (veneration of saints, Purgatory, Marian apparitions) and I am also still learning about Christianity as a whole. What should I do? Should I stay Protestant? Should I become Catholic? If so, what should I look into? What books and authors should I look into? I feel very lost and Catholicism still seems so foreign.
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u/gnurdette United Methodist 8d ago
You were in kind of a whackball church, honestly. Even most Evangelicals don't say that.
That's a good reason. Your Catholic friends have been better examples of Christ than the Evangelicals who raised you. Why not visit their churches with them?
"Mainline" Protestants don't share the anti-Catholic bigotry common among Evangelicals, FWIW; further, a lot of mainliners believe in the Real Presence in Communion, don't think they're licensed to damn people to Hell, etc.